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Monday, May 9, 2016

Embryo Adoption :: Our Journey {2007-2014}

I have been journaling about our embryo adoption throughout our journey. Because we knew it would be an emotional process, we chose to make the intimate details known only to our family and a few close friends. Now that we have made our long-awaited announcement and have shared how the Lord has chosen to build our family, I have published pieces of our story here on this blog. I dated each post according to our actual timeline, but have also provided links below, in case anyone is interested in reading these bits of our journey. Be forewarned: it has been a LONG journey, so I will break out our journey into a few posts {with more to come tomorrow!}

I have included our journey of infertility as well, because it's part of our story and how we came to know of embryo adoption in the first place. You can read more specific details about that part of our journey here, here and here.

May 2007: Our first set of precious embryos were formed and frozen. I was graduating from Baylor, and Mike was in graduate school working at Woodcreek as the high school pastor. We hadn't even met yet, but the Lord was already planning our family.

March 30, 2009: Our second set of precious embryos were frozen. I had started working at Wortham, but was still searching for event jobs, and Mike was working at Woodcreek as the youth pastor. We hadn't started dating yet, but {again} the Lord was already planning our family. It was a different time and a different situation, but I thought this prayerwas fitting...

September 2012: Mike and I made the decision to begin growing our family {and therefore started praying for little ones...cue the day count!}, but we knew we needed to figure out what was up with my stomach issues first.

May 2013: After achieving remission and getting the green light from my doctors, we officially began trying to conceive.

February 2014: We had been trying to get pregnant for 10 months without any success, and we were worried something might be wrong. As I began researching infertility treatment options, I came across embryo adoption for the first time and thought it was a really amazing option and began praying about it.

May 30, 2014: We reached the 1 year mark of trying to conceive and received our initial infertility diagnosis from my OBGYN. We were referred to a Reproductive Endocrinologist {RE}.

June 20, 2014: First semen analysis. When the results came back, we were referred to a specialist.

July 15, 2014: First consultation and exam with the urologist {happy 3rd anniversary to us!}

July 23, 2014: Second semen analysis. The results were not good, so we were asked to repeat the test.

August 19, 2014: Third semen analysis. We received our final infertility diagnosis and were told we had less than 1% chance of conceiving on our own. The only option offered was IVF with ICSI, though our chances of success with that were limited as well.

August 31, 2014: We began discussing embryo adoption together for the first time and began praying about pursuing that instead of IVF with ICSI.

September 15, 2014: Before moving forward with a frozen embryo transfer {FET}, we had to be sure I was healthy enough to carry a pregnancy, so I went in for an HSG test {dye is inserted into the uterine cavity in order to identify issues}.

October 3, 2014: We met with the RE to discuss the results of my HSG test. The test showed a hydrosalpinx {Fallopian tube dilated with fluid...basically a blockage} in my right Fallopian tube. She said the scarring had to be removed to ensure the best possible chance at an FET, but she said it would not affect me carrying a healthy pregnancy, and that donated embryos were a great option for us {yay!}

October 6, 2014: After sending an inquiry for more information, we had our first phone call with Nightlight Christian Adoptions. We officially made the decision to pursue Embryo Adoption!

October 16, 2014: We mailed off our application to Nightlight...here we go! :)

October 27, 2014: Our application was accepted, and we officially started our home study checklist.

October 28, 2014: Fingerprints at Collin County jail...an adventure, for sure :)

October 30, 2014: First embryo adoption training session {How Open is Open Adoption?}

November 1, 2014: Second embryo adoption training session {How Do We Tell the Kids?}